Quotes from Nobu Matsuhisa

I travel all over the world, usually 10 months out of the year. I stay at a lot of hotels, and the ones I like best are clean and not complicated. You go to bed and say, 'Wow, I feel comfortable.'

The first jolt I received in my life was when I lost my father in a motorcycle accident when I was eight. I would have been with him if he hadn't turned down my request to go out with him that afternoon.

My cooking is very simple, so I don't really use machines at all. A knife, cutting board, frying pan and strainer are my essentials.

I used to watch my mother cooking when I was a child; she influenced me a lot.

Chefs are artists, and I couldn't be happy with my art if I was forced to use cheap ingredients.

My business partner Robert De Niro knows a lot about hotels; he opened the Greenwich Hotel in New York City.

Cooking is like fashion. Always, I like to try to change. If I'm traveling in a different country - to Australia, the Bahamas, Budapest, Moscow - and I see a new ingredient, I like to try it in a new dish.

Once I fell out of a tree and was hit by a motorbike. I still have the scar on my head now.

I want to always keep going. I don't want to ever stop.

Cooking and film are completely different - but I'd rather stay in the kitchen than be in movies.

My favorite knife is from Miyakoya in Japan - I have one in each of my restaurants.

Whenever possible, buy a fish whole. With tuna, this isn't practical; with smaller fish, it is.

Large fish such as tuna are shown already cut into fillets and bought by the block. Fillets should be almost transparent. Avoid tuna that looks rainbow-colored or black.

I eat soup noodles for comfort. In fact, noodles of any kind. It's a food that is very easy to eat; it's very soothing and comfortable, too. If I could choose any, I'd say buckwheat was my favourite: it has a very good flavour and is healthy, too.

I always eat a meal at home before I leave for the airport, so I only eat the soup and salad on the plane.

It's true that cilantro has a strange, strong flavor. People seem to love it or not like it at all. Even I didn't like it at first when I had it in Peru. But I got used to it - it's hard not to in South America - and now I can't live without it.

Some hotels have a lot of mirrors, chairs, you can't find the plugs, the music is complicated. But the Nobu concept is beautiful, simple.

A different spice is the most interesting thing to me.

I'm not perfect. I am not Iron Man.

I enjoy people who have passion, whether it is as a musician or whatever they do. All people who have success keep it very basic. Try your best. But without passion, you will not have success.

Dashi remains unfamiliar to most French and American cooks, who tend to reach for a bouillon cube to do many of the same things. But dashi is worth preparing and using the way the Japanese do: for poaching fish, as a soup base, and in simmered dishes.

One evening, Mike Myers and Steven Spielberg were discussing 'Goldmember,' and I just happened to joke, 'If you need a Japanese character, let me know!' The next day, they called me for audition! I find it's always helpful to maintain a sense of humour.

It's still my happiest time when I'm eating.

Making sushi is an art, and experience is everything.